Portfolio — 2 April 2026

The Minister for the Environment and Water, Mr Watt, made two substantive announcements on 2 April that together signal a deliberate turn toward deepening Indigenous partnership in the operation of Australia's most visited national parks.

The first announcement completed the Connecting Kakadu project — a $7.5 million joint investment by the Albanese Government, the Northern Territory Government, and Telstra — delivering upgraded mobile coverage across Kakadu National Park through three macro cell tower upgrades and eight small cell sites at visitor facilities and walking track access points [TA-260402-climat-25d7093a6dbb].

The connectivity infrastructure is framed primarily as a tourism enabler, positioning Kakadu to capture greater visitor spend by closing the coverage gaps that have long constrained the visitor experience at remote sites.

The second announcement — made jointly with the Minister for Indigenous Australians — is structurally more significant. It varies the head lease at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park for the first time since the early 1990s, doubling the Anangu Traditional Owners' share of park revenue from 25 per cent to 50 per cent [TA-260402-climat-b23b56e60e94]. Beyond the revenue shift, the variation introduces joint management principles that reinforce Anangu decision-making authority over park operations, expands Anangu employment pathways, and strengthens protections for sacred sites and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property.

The three-decade gap since the last lease variation gives this change substantial weight as a landmark in the park's governance history.

Read together, the two announcements reflect a consistent approach: using national park instruments — infrastructure investment at Kakadu, lease terms at Uluru-Kata Tjuta — to advance both commercial performance and Indigenous economic and cultural authority. The Uluru-Kata Tjuta variation in particular carries cross-portfolio dimensions, with the Minister for Indigenous Australians as co-signatory, and engages the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Aboriginal Land Trust and Central Land Council as key institutional parties.